70 votes
Accepted

How to handle my little brother's addiction to videogames?

This is anecdotal but... Throughout highschool my life was: wake-up, go to school, come home, game, go to bed, repeat. As I developed other hobbies, I did those instead of gaming. As money to buy ...
BunnyKnitter's user avatar
  • 2,140
42 votes
Accepted

Overcoming Lego Addiction

I'd like to challenge the framing here: is this actually an addiction, or is it just a normal child's passion/fascination? It seems to me there are a few issues that could be the concern here: The ...
Aos Sidhe's user avatar
  • 526
34 votes

How to explain to a 6 years old why a smart-phone is not good for her?

I think an important element to this is not just to answer the question with why, which is well covered in @anongoodnurse's answer, but to also explain when. When will it be okay to have a smartphone? ...
Joe's user avatar
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31 votes

How to handle my little brother's addiction to videogames?

Are you looking at an addiction, or at a symptom, or just a hobby? --- EDIT --- In 2018, after this post was made, ICD-11 was published with "6C51 Gaming Disorder" as a diagnosis. And — yes —...
MichaelK's user avatar
  • 539
28 votes

Limit access to screens (phone, computer) to my kids, whereas I benefitted from "no limit" during my own childhood

My situation is very similar to what you describe: we have multiple kids — one of whom is 9, one slightly older, and one slight younger — I grew up with mostly "unlimited" computer access (...
Solomon Rutzky's user avatar
25 votes
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Passive smoking's effect on a child

Second hand smoke is bad for a child in several ways. First, perhaps most relevant to your case, there are relationships between smoke exposure and atopic dermatitis. See for example this study. It ...
Joe's user avatar
  • 62.6k
25 votes

Overcoming Lego Addiction

It seems like you have a couple of different problems here. Too many Legos in the house Room is a mess Not playing outside To answer (1), a common strategy is to either re-sell or donate complete ...
Joe's user avatar
  • 62.6k
22 votes

Limit access to screens (phone, computer) to my kids, whereas I benefitted from "no limit" during my own childhood

In addition to all the other answers, I'd like to concentrate on the addictive behavior you described. Gaming addiction is just as real as drug addiction and very dangerous because many games, ...
Elmy's user avatar
  • 521
22 votes

Overcoming Lego Addiction

I have two boys who loved Lego - still have a LARGE box of Lego and several still completed models that work. The boys are now over 20 and completed engineering apprenticeships - both precision ...
Solar Mike's user avatar
  • 2,479
19 votes

Story of a sad mom - adult son who is violent and suffering from depression

when I was driving and he used bad words to me and punched to my head many time, I wanted to call 911 , but he said I will kill you later if you do it. We asked police before , but they said we can ...
deworde's user avatar
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19 votes

Limit access to screens (phone, computer) to my kids, whereas I benefitted from "no limit" during my own childhood

The screen is not the problem. I believe we're dealing with a XY problem here. Surely screens are damaging our children irreparably. Breathe. Relax. Grab a cup of tea and consult the wikipedia list ...
loopbackbee's user avatar
18 votes
Accepted

How to explain to a 6 years old why a smart-phone is not good for her?

Explaining a virtual world where dangers exist to a 6 year old will require a lot of comparisons to dangers in the real world. A critical part of shielding her from those dangers is limiting and ...
anongoodnurse's user avatar
17 votes

5yr old Addicted to Mobile Devices - Need Advice!

I completely agree with you about it being the challenge for this generation. In my classroom I used to have to teach low-functioning children how to do tasks and to increase their attention span. I ...
WRX's user avatar
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13 votes

Limit access to screens (phone, computer) to my kids, whereas I benefitted from "no limit" during my own childhood

As you say in your question, the beneficial part of your access to computers was your early exposure to programming and other productive computer skills, and the part that you are concerned about is ...
Kevin's user avatar
  • 229
13 votes

Passive smoking's effect on a child

The most proper course of action is to talk to the smoker and explain to them that 1) you do not find it okay to have smokers around your child, and b) that it can pose specific dangers, given your ...
Roger V.'s user avatar
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12 votes
Accepted

How can I curb my (and my older brother's) game addiction?

Bracing for the downvotes, so here goes: Successful games of any sort (video or otherwise) are either explicitly or effectively engineered to produce addictive behavior, and you are being manipulated ...
Bort's user avatar
  • 236
11 votes

How to stop my 12 year old brother's addiction to video games?

Not an Addiction If someone is doing something excessively we are very quick in seeing addictions nowadays. I had this myself when I was a child, I played some days up to 16 hours and I often got ...
Etaila's user avatar
  • 2,505
11 votes

How to handle my little brother's addiction to videogames?

Don't worry about the Minecraft playing. "'Marc', since he discovered YouTube and gaming, is a huge fan of Minecraft and spends way too much time on it, at the point where it's getting obvious that ...
TOOGAM's user avatar
  • 497
8 votes

How to help a teen that wants to learn productive skills, but has entertainment addiction?

I have experienced something similar to your son (although a lot milder I suspect), however I am a professional software engineer and in my very limited free time I make games. Something I've always ...
Kyyshak's user avatar
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7 votes

Passive smoking's effect on a child

You wrote: "By stupid I mean both immoral and dumb - like smoking near child is something common without any impact on health. Moral principles but what is more important - child health. I don't ...
user21820's user avatar
  • 422
7 votes

Overcoming Lego Addiction

One strategy that you might could use, to keep them engaged in their current sets that they don't want to get rid of, would be to look up, print out, and offer them alternate build instructions. When ...
Sensoray's user avatar
  • 171
5 votes

How to handle my little brother's addiction to videogames?

Of course, my parents can have enough with my brother's behaviour, and decide to cut the internet. He then starts a tantrum, answer back to his mother and yells. I'm going to hazard a guess - ...
JBentley's user avatar
  • 151
5 votes

Story of a sad mom - adult son who is violent and suffering from depression

Your situation is indeed very sad. You have tried to do everything right by your son, unfortunately he has made very poor choices, which have negatively impacted everyone. I think all you can really ...
user1751825's user avatar
  • 3,785
5 votes

Can a 3-month-old baby get addicted to TV?

Screen time is something to be concerned about at all ages of development for a young child. It can significantly hamper children's sleep time. "Infants exposed to screen media in evening hours have ...
JackOfTales's user avatar
5 votes

Is my 4-year-old too dependent on over-the-counter medication?

I think that @threetimes is definitely on the right track here, but I wanted to add something else as well. I have a distinct memory as a kid of taking medicine for something and then being very ...
magerber's user avatar
  • 1,526
5 votes

5yr old Addicted to Mobile Devices - Need Advice!

We try to be very strict with putting time/place limits on it.. but he just cant stop receptively asking for it without a major tantrum if left unquenched. And? If behavior is rewarded, it is ...
John Doe's user avatar
  • 388
4 votes
Accepted

Is my 4-year-old too dependent on over-the-counter medication?

Children can be odd in how they respond to illness. When one of my children was not even two he caught a stomach bug. We all did. But everyone got better within short order, then the toddler became ...
threetimes's user avatar
  • 7,330
4 votes

How to handle my little brother's addiction to videogames?

I think your best option is to try and develop a relationship as your brother's ally in this situation. You can talk to your father about implementing consequences and what type of consequences ...
magerber's user avatar
  • 1,526
4 votes

Limit access to screens (phone, computer) to my kids, whereas I benefitted from "no limit" during my own childhood

Like others in this thread I had a similar upbringing to you. When I was younger (say early primary school), I had unrestricted use on the (only) computer in the house. There was a slow and ...
David_G's user avatar
  • 141
4 votes

Indulging mobile game obsession Pokémon Go in 6-year old

I would say while Screentime is always an important decision, in this case I see it as substantially more positive than negative. Addressing your concerns He isn't isolated or using it to avoid ...
Vality's user avatar
  • 211

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